Monthly Archives: July 2019

Dyer’s Polypore (Phaeolus schweinitzii)

Dyer’s Polypore
Photo by Luciearl

Dyer’s Polypore (Phaeolus schweinitzii) is one of the most common large polypores in coniferous forests throughout North America. It is used to prepare fabric dyes of various colors, but is also a significant pest to the timber industry in western United States.

The fruiting body is a large, bracket-shaped polypore (conk). It usually appears on the ground as a rosette or an overlapping tier of brackets at or near the base of a large coniferous tree. In Minnesota it is most common on white pine. It attacks the living roots and the heartwood of older trees, causing the disease called red-brown butt rot. The lower 10 to 20 feet of the trunk, the most valuable part for the timber industry, is weakened or hollowed, making the tree susceptible to falling over. On young trees the fungus causes root rot which is also fatal.

The cap is 2″ to 12″ wide and circular when growing on the ground, semicircular or fan-shaped when on a trunk. When young it is soft, spongy, light brownish-yellow to orange, and densely covered with velvety hairs. As it ages it becomes hard, less hairy, and turns dark brown from the center outwards. Older specimens are brittle and dark brown or black, looking something like a cow pie. It is probably poisonous.

http://www.minnesotaseasons.com/Fungi/Dyers_Polypore.html

Ferruginous tiger crane fly (Nephrotoma ferruginea)

ferruginous tiger crane fly
Photo by Alfredo Colon

With over 15,000 described species, the family Tipulidae (crane flies) is one of the largest families of true flies (Diptera). More than 1,600 species occur in North America. The subfamily Tipulinae (large crane flies) contains the largest of the crane flies. In North America, the vast majority of species are in the genera Tipula and Nephrotoma. The genus Nephrotoma (tiger crane flies) contains about 150 described species. The most common of these is ferruginous tiger crane fly (Nephrotoma ferruginea).

“Ferruginous” means reddish-brown or rust colored, but ferruginous tiger crane fly is more often described as orange in color. It is distinguished from other crane flies by the body color, the antennae that are entirely black except for the first two segments, and by a black spot at each end of a groove across the thorax.

http://www.minnesotaseasons.com/Insects/ferruginous_tiger_crane_fly.html

Brown Wasp mantidfly (Climaciella brunnea)

brown wasp mantidfly
Photo by Bill Reynolds

Brown wasp mantidfly (Climaciella brunnea) is a large wasp mimic. It occurs across the United States, in adjacent Canadian provinces, and in Mexico and Central America. It is widespread but considered scarce.

With its mantid-like front legs wasp mantidfly looks similar to a praying mantis but it is not even closely related. This is an example of convergent evolution, where unrelated organisms, adapting to similar environments, independently evolve similar characteristics. It also looks similar to a paper wasp. This is an example of Batesian mimicry, making it look like another species that is unpalatable or dangerous to potential predators.

Adults emerge in late May through October. Males live less than a week, females up to a month. They can be found on flowers where they wait on and ambush small insects. During her time the female lays up to several thousand eggs. The small white eggs have short stalks and are attached to the underside of plant leaves. After an egg hatches the larva waits for and then attaches itself to a passing wolf spider. When the female wolf spider begins making an egg sac, the mantid larva crawls off the spider and onto the sac. It then gets wrapped up as the egg sac is completed and feeds on the spider eggs inside.

http://www.minnesotaseasons.com/Insects/brown_wasp_mantidfly.html